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ap psych important people

Terms in this set (74)

Aaron Beck Known
as the father of cognitive therapy
Abraham Maslow
Psychologist developed a hierarchy of needs
Albert Bandura
Studied observational learning and developed the Bobo doll experiment
Albert Ellis
Developed Rational- Emotive Behavioral Therapy.
Alfed Binet
Invented the first usable intelligence test. Made an important distinction betweem mental and chronological age
Alfred Adler
Neo-Freudian who developed the idea of the inferiority complex
Alfred Kinsey
created a controversial scale of sexuality which attempted to measure a persons sexual orientation
B.F. Skinner
Psychologist who studied operant conditioning through the use of a box where a rat pressed a lever for reward
Benjamin Whorf
Psychologist who developed the principle of linguistic relativity, which held that thought is influenced by language.
Carl Jung
Well known Neo-Freudian who developed the concept of the collective unconscious and believed all humans shared cultural archetypes
Carl Rogers
Psychologist who offered an optimistic view of human nature and believed people are innately good. Developed client-centered therapy and termed the concept "unconditional positive regard"
Carl Wernicke
Identified the part of the brain responsible for Language Comprehension
Carol Gilligan
Critic of Kohlberg's theory of moral development, and argued that women use reasoning different then men
Charles Spearman
Proposed that intelligence is a single, underlying factor, which he termed general intelligence or the g factor
David Hubel
Noted for his studies of the structure and function of the visual cortex, experiments in cats and monkeys led to the discovery of ocular dominance, the preference of cells that process visual stimuli to respond to input from one or the other eye.
David Weschler
Developed a series of widely used intelligence tests.
Diana Baumrind
Best known for her work on parenting styles. Identified three distinct parenting styles - authoritative, authoritarian, permissive
Dorothea Dix
An American reformer who documented the deplorable conditions of how states cared for their insane.
Edward Thorndike
First proposed the Law of Effect
Edward Tolman
Studied the development of cognitive maps in rats
Elizabeth Loftus
cognitive psychologist who continues to pioneer the study of false memories, and the malleability of memory
Erik Erikson
Neo-Freudian who developed an influential theory of psychosocial development, outline 8 stages or crises from birth to death.
Ernst Heinrich Weber
related to human perception, created the law that states the just noticable difference (JND) is proportional to the intensity of the stimulus
Ernst Hilgard
Psychologist who researched hypnosis and pain control. Theorized that a hypnotized person experiences a state of dissociation or divided consciousness. Termed the "hiddren observer"
Francis Galton
Developed the statistical concept of correlation and was the first to demonstrate that the normal distribution could be applied to intelligence
G. Stanley Hall
Established America's first psychological laboratory. Served as the first president of the American Psychological Association
George A. Miller
Known for his classic paper "The Magical Number, Seven, Plus or Minus Two". Presented evidence that working memory is limited to 7 items, plus or minus 2.
Gordon Allport
Had three levels of traits: 1. Cardinal trait is the dominant trait that characterizes your life, 2. Central trait is one common to all people, and 3. Secondary trait which surfaces in some situations and not in others
Gustav Fechner
related to human perception he created the law that states the difference is proportional but also logarithmic (which means at a certain point a small change can make a big difference) . Also demonstarted that mental processes can be measured.
Hans Selye
Developed the General Adaptation Syndrome of which examined the human stress response
Harry Harlow
Studied attachment and disproved the cupboard theory - termed contact comfort
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Developed the Forgetting curve which looked at transience
Howard Gardner
Psychologist widely known for his theory on multiple intelligences
Ivan Pavlov
Laid the foundational work for the principles of Classical Conditioning while studying the digestive principles of dogs
Jean PIaget
Studied classical conditioning by studying the salivation of dogs
John B Watson
discontinuous cognitive psychologist who outlined four stages of cognitive development from birth to adulthood, starting with sensorimotor and ending in the formal operational stage
John Garcia
Applied the principles of Classical Conditioning conditioning to Taste Aversion, identifying that the a connection between a UCS and CS can be delayed (Garcia Effect) but learning will still occur
Joseph Wolpe
Developed a technique for treating phobies called systematic desensitization
Konrad Lorenz
Best known for his discovery of the principle of attachment, or imprinting.
Lawrence Kohlberg
Psychologist who used a hypothetical moral dilemma to study moral reasoning
Leon Festinger
formulated theory of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance involves the state of tension and anxiety that occurs when an individual's attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent
Lev Vygotsky
Psychologist that focused on how culture and social interaction influenced cognitive development -identified the ZPD or zone of proximal development
Lewis Terman
Conducted an influential longitudinal study on gifted children
Margaret Floy
Washburn First woman to be awarded aPhD in Psychology.
Mary Ainsworth
Studied attachment styles with children - specifically identified secure and insecure attachment styles
Mary Cover Jones
Known as the first psychologist to apply behavioral techniques to therapy. Worked with "Little Peter" and helped him overcome his fear
Mary Whiton Calkins
Was denied a PhD at Harvard, established a psychological lab at Wellesley College. Served as the first president of the American Psychological Association
Michael Gazzaniga
Continued Roger Sperry's research by advancing the understanding of how two cerebral hemispheres communicate with one another through split brain experiments
Paul Broca
Identified the part of the brain responsible for speech production
Paul Costa & Robert McCra
Personality theorists best known for their work in developing the Big Five Model - openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
Philip Zimbardo
known for his popular but controversial study, The Stanford Prison Experiment. The experiment was thought to have illustrated how the process of deindividuation led to the reduction of personal responsibility and the abuse of power
Robert Rescorla
Behaviorist who found that the conditioned stimulus must be a reliable signal that predicts the presentation of an unconditional stimulus.
Robert Sternberg
Developed the triarchic theory of intelligence - analytic, creative, and practical
Roger Sperry
Best known for his research with split brain patients - demonstrated that the brain's right and left hemispheres have specialized functions
Sigmund Freud
founder of psychoanalysis, studied personality and its three components the id, ego, and super ego, as well as the psychosexual stages of development and the power of the unconcious
Solomon Asch
studied the effect to which pressure from a majority group could influence one's behavior. He used the famous line studies
Stanley Milgram
Studied obedience to authority, specifically found that ordinary citizens are willing to obey an authority figure who instructed them to administer shocks to an innocent "learner"
Stanley Schachter
social psychologist, who is perhaps best known for his development of the two factor theory of emotion, states that emotions have two ingredients: physiological arousal and a cognitive label
Torsten Wiesel
Collaborated with David Hubel to expand the sensory processing and perception
Wilhelm Wundt
Known as the father of psychology, developed the research method of introspection, established first psychology research laboratory
William James Theorist
behind functionalism, studied under Wundst
Wolfgang Kohler
A cognitive learning theorist who proposed that animals also learn through insight learning, as opposed to just behavioral learning or trial and error
Robert Yerkes & John Dodson
Studied motivation & arousal, developed the law which suggests that elevated arousal levels can improve performance, but only up to a certain point.
Hans Eysenck
Personality and intelligence theorist. Proposed a theory of personality based on biological factors, arguing that individuals inherit a type of nervous system that affects their ability to learn and adapt to the environment. Two traits in his theory - neuroticism and extraversion. His suggestion that racial differences in intelligence were due to genetics rather than environment generated a tremendous amount of conflict.
Raymond Cattell
theorized that intelligence can be broken into fluid and crystallized intelligence
Noam Chomsky
Developed the idea of the Language Acquisition Device and speculated that all humans are born with the innate capacity to learn language
Thomas Szasz
wrote the Myth of Mental Illness, believed that there was no such thing as mental illness
Walter Mischel
studied delayed gratification in young children and how it relates to the importance of self-control in human development
Clark Hull
developed Drive Reduction Theory, which theorizes that people are motivated to lower certain drives (hunger, thirst, etc)
David Rosenhan
Researcher behind the study "Being Sane in Insane Places" - he and his team pretended to hear voices in order to be admitted into insane asylums and then they acted normal. Found that the mentally ill were treated very poorly and that no one recognized them as sane individuals
Paul Ekman
Identified Universal Facial expressions - sadness, disgust, joy, surprise, anger, fear contempt
Kurt Lewin
A German refugee who escaped Nazi oppression. He designed an experiment to investigate the effects of different leadership styles on group functions. He wanted to find out if people were more productive under 3 different styles 1. autocratic, 2. laizssez-faire, and 3. democratic. This is the study when he had children do activities under the 3 conditions. The democratic style proved to be the most productive as was expected
Martin Seligman
theorist behind learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is the giving up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do does not matter.
Karen Horney
Neo-Freudian who focused on neurotic needs and disagreed with Freud's idea of penis envy - developed the concept of womb envy instead
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